Salafi group claims responsibility for rocket attack on Eilat

Two rockets struck the Israeli Red Sea resort town of Eilat but caused no damage on Wednesday morning, according to Reuters.

Eilat mayor Meir Yitzhak Halevy told Army Radio that the rockets were likely fired from the Sinai but struck open areas, although the Egyptian armed forces have denied this possibility.

A Salafi jihadist group claimed responsibility for firing the rockets, AFP reported.

"The lions of the Mujahedeen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem managed to target occupied Eilat with two Grad rockets on the morning of April 17, and withdrew safely," a statement posted on jihadist websites said. They did not mention where the rockets were fired from.

The Egyptian armed forces have denied the possibility that the rockets were fired from the Sinai peninsula. Major General Alaa Ezzedine, head of Egypt's Strategic Centre of the Armed Forces told Ahram Online that no rockets had been fired from Egyptian territory.

"Egypt owns the capabilities required for knowing who fired the rockets and from which point; based on our radar systems, we confirm that no rockets were launched from inside Egyptian territory" he stated.

The last time rockets were fired on Eilat from the Sinai was in November 2012. Israeli concern over security in the Sinai has increased since Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011.

"Major Amer Al-Sirtawi" from Aqaba Police Operations told Al Bawaba that reports of rockets landing in the Jordanian resort town of Aqaba are false.